Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-29
TWELVE YEARS AT CHATTANOOGA.
What Has Been Accomplished ON the Bloody
Battlefield.


What Has Been Accomplished ON the Blood!
Battlefield.
Chattanooga is twelve years old, says
letter to the st. Louis Globe Democrat
True the name of Ross Landing on the
Tennessee, was dropped for Chattanooga
in 1887 but in the fifty years since thai
beginning there have been three or -four
re-generations. The war swept away al
that Chattanooga had accumulated up to
1860, and transformed the city and is
envlrons iuto great fort. The same
advantages of location which are now
making it great industrial center gave
1t Importance as military standpoint
Here Is the natural crossing of the noun
tains and of the river from north to
soath. The strategy of war claimed
Cha sapoog1's site and wiped her out IS
a city in the '60s. But the strategy O.
peace is now making her greater than
she ever dreamed of being.
In 1866 there were twenty thousand
people here living on the government
and on the army. When the troops were
finally mustered out,-a negro brigade
being disbanded here that year-the pop,
ulation fell off to perhaps $500 genuins
they were in! There were no manufac
turers. There was not store. There
was not even farms to be titled in the
suburbs. Block houses, redoubts, earth
curtains, and trenches were everywhere
Chattanooga started with worse than
nothing, for there were tons of earth to
be removed before the streets could be
made passable. In and about tho city
were 1919, pieces OF artillery when the
labor OF dismantling the works began
Col. j. E. MCGOWAN, who superintended
the removal of the cannon, says: they
ranged from jack ass howitzers to an
eight gun battery OF 100 FOUNDER Parrot
on naval carriages. The 100 Founders
were stationed on Cameron's hill, in a
fort which now does duty as reservoir
for the city. This. however, is about the
only permanent advantage which Chat
anooga derived from the war. She got a
reservoir without much digging.
The picture which Col, MCGOWAN
draws of the city as toe army left it is
only pleasant to look upon by way OF
comparison with what can be seen Co.
day. In April 1880, he says there was not
a store room of any size fit to put stock
of goods in-not one. The great hulk.
3,
masters and commissaries were bought
of the government, divided into two
rooms, and the walls covered with old
tent cloth on which wall paper was pasted
These served for stores and the rooms
in the rear similarly reconstructed were
the offices of professional men. Picture
the town a sprawling village of board
shanties, built along lands destitute of
any walk or roadway save the red earth
without a respectable structure in it
without schools and almost without
churches; without money or credit, and
surrounded by a country laid literally
bare, left utterly poor.
L To day there is 101 business structures
in process Of construction. At the cor
ner of Eight and Market streets site
recently chrnged hands at $4,000 and
| the walls of a building to cost 100000
are rising.
About all of this wonderful transfer
nation worth mentioning has taken
place since 1876. For the first decade
after the war Chattanooga struggled
hard TO get on her feet and without sue
cess. Small pox left in the deserted
cemps and barracks by the army, scat.
tered its seeds through the city and
| swept off the population. Then came 6
disastrous flood down the Tennessee and
washed away the jus5 arising industries
| In 1870, the Alabama and Chattanooga
railroad which had its headquarters here
and with which all branches of trade were
more or less intimately connected wen
Ender slmost bankrupting the little city
The panic Of 1878 almost completed the
wrek. So it was not until 1875 and 1915
that Chattanooga started on the career
of prosperity which has continued with
| out a brerk.
On the Western and Atlantic train yes
terday a minister from Atlanta and {
young lawyer from Dalton sat down to
| gether.
| "John," said the minister, II hear yoJ
are going to leave Dalton. Is that so?"
eyes," said the lawyer, "I'm going te
move to Chattanooga. I've been up Their,
to day making arrangements"
"I'm sorry to hear that" said the mini
sier. isn't Dalton good enough fo1
your"
"There isn't place in Georgia whert
the society is BETTER" replied the lawye
earnestly.
The moral tone is high, and 1 dom
believe the bar ranks higher anywhere il
the state. But what S there there for
| young man? He may make living blu
he will gradually be ruined by inertnes
but at Chattanooga a man must be NOV
ing all the time.
A Hungarian Beauty Show.
Beauty shows are by no means al